Newstalk Breakfast

The Labour Party will today call for a health-led drugs policy and decriminalization of people who use drugs. Is this the way forward in the war against drugs. All to discuss with Dr Garrett McGovern, Medical Director at the Priority Medical Clinic in Dundrum and GP addiction specialist.

Zohran Mamdani has won the New York City mayoral race, capping a meteoric rise from a little-known state politician to one of the country's most visible Democratic figures.    

 So who is the New York mayor? To tell us was David Smith, Washington Bureau Chief, The Guardian. 

After the recent presidential election, which saw the highest-ever vote for a left-wing candidate in Irish history. Many supporters of Catherine Connolly met an event last night to discuss “What’s Next for the Left?” Joining Newstalk Breakfast talk about it is one of the event’s speakers, Paul Murphy, People Before Profit TD.

The Criminal Assets Bureau sold 20 properties which were found to be the proceeds of crime last year, the highest number sold in any one year. Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan is expected to bring the bureau's annual report to the Cabinet and publish it later. 

We discuss further with Conor Lally, Irish Times Crime and Security Editor.

Uisce Éireann will be required to manage new privately built wastewater plants under proposals Minister for Housing James Browne will bring to Cabinet this morning. The move is aiming to speed up the delivery of homes in rural towns and villages that currently have inadequate water services. 

Ciara discusses this further with Paul Davis, Lecturer in Public Procurement, DCU.  

Sinn Fein is calling on the Government to support their legislation to cut school uniform costs. We discuss further with their Education Spokesperson Darren O’Rourke.

The Irish Council for Civil Liberties is appearing before the Oireachtas Committee on Justice today, and it is calling for the age of criminal responsibility to be raised to 14. For more on this we heard from Sean Egan, Procedural Rights Fellow with Irish Council for Civil liberties and Practicing Criminal Barrister.

Young people across Ireland can apply for one of 40,000 free travel passes available through the European Commission’s DiscoverEU initiative. So, what exactly are they?  Eoghan Corry, Editor of Travel Extra.ie brings us the details.

Public hospitals have cancelled around one million patient appointments in the last four years. 

That's according to analysis from the Irish Medical Times ahead of Patient Solutions, a new conference dedicated to finding solutions to enhance patient care and outcomes.  Ciara discusses this further with Professor Matthew Sadlier, Chair of the consultants committee of the Irish Medical Organization.

‘It should be recognised that the theft of a dog is more akin to the theft of a family member rather than the theft of an object. That should be recognised by the law.’   

 That’s the view of Pete Wedderburn, Bray Based Vet.